Evaluating quality, understandability, and actionability of YouTube content for gender-affirming surgery.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to evaluate YouTube content about metoidioplasty on completeness of perioperative information, actionability, understandability, degree of misinformation, quality, and presence of commercial bias.

METHODS

A YouTube search for "Metoidioplasty" was conducted and the first 100 video results were watched by five independent reviewers. Videos in English, <30 minutes in length were included and videos primarily showing surgical footage were excluded. Videos were evaluated between January 2022 and June 2022. Each video was evaluated for presenter demographics, channel/video statistics, and whether it covered topics including anatomy, treatment options, outcomes, procedure risks, and misinformation, and whether it had a clickbait title. Calculated scores for validated DISCERN and patient education materials assessment tool (PEMAT) metrics were the primary outcome variables used to quantify quality, actionability, and understandability. For PEMAT, a cutoff of 75% was used to differentiate between "poor" vs. "good/sufficient." Multivariate and univariate logistic regressions were performed to assess correlations among primary outcome variables and other variables.

RESULTS

Of the 79 videos analyzed, 24% (n=19) were of high quality; 99% (n=78) had poor understandability and 100% (n=79%) had poor actionability. Patients/consumers were the most common publisher type (n=71, 90%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates metoidioplasty content available on YouTube is not comprehensive and is of poor quality, and poor actionability and understandability, demonstrating a clear need for more relevant, accessible, comprehensible, and accurate content.